More about Flow Action rules

In your flow rule, reference local flow actions in the assignment Shape Properties panel. Reference connector flow actions in the connector Shape Properties panel:

• Connector flow actions allow a user to process an assignment completely and advance the work object within the flow.
• Local flow actions allow a user to update properties in an assignment without completing the assignment. A local flow action may send the unfinished assignment to a coworker's worklist.

By referencing flow actions in your flow, you determine the choices that appear at runtime in the Take Action area.

Best practices for Short Description text

Complete the text in the Short Description field of the flow action form carefully. It appears at runtime as a user choice. Note these best practices:

• Start the Short Description text with an imperative verb such as Attach, Update, Create, Send, Cancel, Resolve, or Approve. Choose language that reflects the worker's perspective, not what the application does next internally.
• If a standard flow action meets the functional needs but you require different Short Description text, create a field value rule named @baseclass.pyCaption.name (where name is the Short Description of the standard rule) and enter the text you want in the Localized Label field.
• If your application is to support users who have multiple locales, choose a Short Description text carefully, and maintain a list of them. When practical, choose a text value already included in a language pack, to simplify later localization. Create a field value rule named @baseclass.pyCaption.name (where name is the Short Description of your application flow action rule) in each language-specific RuleSet. See About the Localization wizard.
• Create simple, explicit flow actions that record one decision or outcome, so that busy workers choose the correct one and have no uncertainty as to what will happen next.
• Design the assignments so that each assignment has no more than five to seven connector flow actions. Offering users too many choices may increase errors. If the application truly requires users to select one choice from dozens of possibilities, sequence the alternatives in a screen flow or by using multiple assignments. For example, have users pick a major grouping or category in the first assignment, and then one minor choice within that group in the second assignment.

Development process

To build and use a flow action, take these steps:

As you build your application:

1. Create a flow action rule. As you create the flow action, you record several choices. You determine the HTML form that appears when a user selects this flow action. You can restrict a flow action to appear only to certain users, based on access roles. Using when conditions, you can conditionalize whether the flow action appears at all.

2. If the flow action is to be local, associate the flow action with an assignment task in your flow. If the flow action is a connector flow action, associate it with a connector in your flow, with an arrow leading from the assignment task to another task on the flow diagram.

At runtime:

3. To test a flow action, log in as a worker or manager with appropriate access roles. Enter the Process Work workspace. Enter a work object for a flow that includes an assignment that references the flow action. As it executes, the flow creates an assignment for the work object and places the assignment on a worklist.

4. Finally, log in as the person whose worklist has the assignment. From your worklist, click the assignment. You see the Perform harness form, and you see the short description of your flow action in the selection box in the Perform form. When you select the flow action, the HTML fields defined for that flow action appear.

Preview and Run

After you save a flow action form, click the toolbar Preview button () or type the equivalent keyboard shortcut CTRL+ALT+P to view an approximate runtime rendering of the flow action presentation. (Many flow action rules depend on context. Even when the rule is correctly configured, the Preview display may fail and report JSP errors if this flow action rule depends on clipboard contents that do not exist or other rules that cannot be found.)

Click the Run toolbar button () to test the flow action with data from the clipboard. See How to test a flow action rule.

As with the Form tab, the system renders both the Preview and Run displays using the styles of the skin rule identified in the Skins field of the Run Process In group of your General preferences. If the Skins field is blank, these displays use the styles marked Work on the Styles tab of the skin identified in your current portal rule. See Developer Portal — Setting preferences.

Java code display

When you save a flow action rule, the system converts your HTML and JSP tags or directives to Java source code. As a learning or debugging aid, you can review this Java code.

Click the Show Java toolbar button () to see the system-generated Java code that implements the flow action rule. The window presents a read-only preview of the Java that implements this rule instance. This Java code is not identical to the Java that executes at runtime, which includes Java code inlined from other rule instances and reflects rules in the requestor's RuleSet list.

Where referenced

The standard activity Work-.GenerateActionFrame presents flow actions within a work object form.

Parent class

Through directed inheritance, Rule-Obj-FlowAction class is derived from the Rule-HTML-Section class.

	assignment, connector, likelihood, local flow action
	Understanding CSS styles
	Atlas — Standard flow actions (Connector/Local) Atlas — Standard flow actions (Local)

About Flow Action rules